Review site aggregator OpenCritic is looking at displaying a video game’s business model in its rankings.
It announced on Twitter it would take a stand against the growing “loot box” business model, which is prevalent in modern games.
Where loot boxes were previously restricted to free-to-play multiplayer games, many new titles have implemented the system.
Star Wars: Battlefront II, Forza 7, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War all feature in-game purchases and microtransactions – despite being priced at around R900 each.
OpenCritic aims to differentiate between in-game purchases which are purely “cosmetic” and those which provide an advantage over others or affect core gameplay.
The move follows a backlash against video game publishers for implementing microtransactions in full-priced games.
We’re going to take a stand against loot boxes. We’re looking into ways to add business model information to OpenCritic.
— OpenCritic (@Open_Critic) October 9, 2017
